Estimating the heritability of hair colour and eye colour

In the present study the colours of hair and eyes are regarded as quantitative genetic characters. The genetic and environmental components of the total variance of the characters are determined by analysis of correlation between parents and children as well as full sibs. An analysis of correlation coefficients makes it possible to further examine whether autosomal dominance or X-linked factors play a role in the inheritance.     

Molluscan shell colour

The phylum Mollusca is highly speciose, and is the largest phylum in the marine realm. The great majority of molluscs are shelled, including nearly all bivalves, most gastropods and some cephalopods. The fabulous and diverse colours and patterns of molluscan shells are widely recognised and have been appreciated for hundreds of years by collectors and scientists alike. They serve taxonomists as characters that can be used to recognise and distinguish species, however their function for the animal is sometimes less clear and has been the focus of many ecological and evolutionary studies. Despite these studies, almost nothing is known about the evolution of colour in molluscan shells. This review summarises for the first time major findings of disparate studies relevant to the evolution of shell colour in Mollusca and discusses the importance of colour, including the effects of visual and non‐visual selection, diet and abiotic factors. I also summarise the evidence for the heritability of shell colour in some taxa and recent efforts to understand the molecular mechanisms underpinning synthesis of shell colours. I describe some of the main shell pigments found in Mollusca (carotenoids, melanin and tetrapyrroles, including porphyrins and bile pigments), and their durability in the fossil record. Finally I suggest that pigments appear to be distributed in a phylogenetically relevant manner and that the synthesis of colour is likely to be energetically costly.     

The colour line and the colour scale in the twentieth century

Some more recent evidence supports Du Bois’ prediction that the twentieth century would prove the century of the colour line. It indicates that men have always and everywhere shown a preference for fair complexioned women as sexual partners, whereas males seeking a mate are rarely disadvantaged by a dark complexion. In the employment market in the USA, a dark complexion is a significant disadvantage for both males and females. Though there is no properly comparable evidence from other countries, there appears to be a widespread tendency for any negative valuation of darker skin colour to be incorporated into a scale of socio-economic status. In some situations a colour scale is replacing the colour line.

Du Bois’ reference to differences of colour has been largely superseded in English-speaking countries by references to differences of race. From a policy standpoint, the switch from colour to race has had both positive and negative consequences. From a sociological standpoint, it has made it more difficult to disaggregate the dimensions of social difference and to dispel the confusions engendered by ideas of racial difference.     

The uses of colour vision: behavioural and physiological distinctiveness of colour stimuli

Colour and greyscale (black and white) pictures look different to us, but it is not clear whether the difference in appearance is a consequence of the way our visual system uses colour signals or a by-product of our experience. In principle, colour images are qualitatively different from greyscale images because they make it possible to use different processing strategies. Colour signals provide important cues for segmenting the image into areas that represent different objects and for linking together areas that represent the same object. If this property of colour signals is exploited in visual processing we would expect colour stimuli to look different, as a class, from greyscale stimuli. We would also expect that adding colour signals to greyscale signals should change the way that those signals are processed. We have investigated these questions in behavioural and in physiological experiments. We find that male marmosets (all of which are dichromats) rapidly learn to distinguish between colour and greyscale copies of the same images. The discrimination transfers to new image pairs, to new colours and to image pairs in which the colour and greyscale images are spatially different. We find that, in a proportion of neurons recorded in the marmoset visual cortex, colour-shifts in opposite directions produce similar enhancements of the response to a luminance stimulus. We conclude that colour is, both behaviourally and physiologically, a distinctive property of images.     

Visual ecology of flies with particular reference to colour vision and colour preferences

The visual ecology of flies is outstanding among insects due to a combination of specific attributes. Flies’ compound eyes possess an open rhabdom and thus separate rhabdomeres in each ommatidium assigned to two visual pathways. The highly sensitive, monovariant neural superposition system is based on the excitation of the peripheral rhabdomeres of the retinula cells R1–6 and controls optomotor reactions. The two forms of central rhabdomeres of R7/8 retinula cells in each ommatidium build up a system with four photoreceptors sensitive in different wavelength ranges and thought to account for colour vision. Evidence from wavelength discrimination tests suggests that all colour stimuli are assigned to one of just four colour categories, but cooperation of the two pathways is also evident. Flies use colour cues for various behavioural reactions such as flower visitation, proboscis extension, host finding, and egg deposition. Direct evidence for colour vision, the ability to discriminate colours according to spectral shape but independent of intensity, has been demonstrated for few fly species only. Indirect evidence for colour vision provided from electrophysiological recordings of the spectral sensitivity of photoreceptors and opsin genes indicates similar requisites in various flies; the flies’ responses to coloured targets, however, are much more diverse.     

On the measurement and classification of colour in studies of animal colour patterns

In studies of animal colouration it is no longer necessary to rely on subjective assessments of colour and conspicuousness, nor on methods which rely upon human vision. This is important because animals vary greatly in colour vision and colour is context-dependent. New methods make it practical to measure the colour spectrum of pattern elements (patches) of animals and their visual backgrounds for the conditions under which patch spectra reach the conspecific's, predator's or prey's eyes. These methods can be used in both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. A patch's colour is dependent not only upon its reflectance spectrum, but also upon the ambient light spectrum, the transmission properties of air or water, and the veiling light spectrum. These factors change with time of day, weather, season and microhabitat, so colours must be measured under the conditions prevalent when colour patterns are normally used. Methods of measuring, classifying and comparing colours are presented, as well as techniques for assessing the conspicuousness of colour patterns as a whole. Some implications of the effect of environmental light and vision are also discussed.     

Effects of colour on preview search: anticipatory and inhibitory biases for colour

Two experiments are reported examining the effects of colour grouping, colour change and target colour foreknowledge under preview search conditions (Watson and Humphreys, 1997). In Experiment 1 we manipulated the colour homogeneity of the old items at initial presentation, and the colour these items subsequently changed into. In all cases participants knew the colour of the target. We found that when the old items changed into the same colour as the new search set, search performance was affected. In Experiment 2 participants did not know the colour of the target. Here we found evidence for a negative colour-based carry-over effect that slowed search for new targets carrying the colour of the old items. This occurred even when the old items changed their original colour and the new target was a singleton. Collectively the results suggest an important role for both colour grouping and colour-based inhibition in the successful rejection of old distractors. The consequence of this, however, is that new stimuli that may carry the critical attribute may take longer to detect. We discuss the results in relation to prior 'feature-blind' accounts of preview effects on visual search.     

Floral colour diversity in plant communities,bee colour space and a null model

Evolutionary biologists have long hypothesized that the diversity of flower colours we see is in part a strategy to promote memorization by pollinators, pollinator constancy, and therefore, a directed and efficient pollen transfer between plants. However, this hypothesis has never been tested against a biologically realistic null model, nor were colours assessed in the way pollinators see them. Our intent here is to fill these gaps. Throughout one year, we sampled floral species compositions at five ecologically distinct sites near Berlin, Germany. Bee-subjective colours were quantified for all 168 species. A model of colour vision was used to predict how similar the colours of sympatric and simultaneously blooming flowers were for bees. We then compared flower colour differences in the real habitats with those of random plant communities. We did not find pronounced deviations from chance when we considered common plants. When we examined rare plants, however, we found significant divergence in two of the five plant communities. At one site, similarly coloured species were found to be more frequent than expected, and at the other two locations, flower colours were indistinguishable from a random distribution. These results fit theoretical considerations that rare plants are under stronger selective pressure to secure pollination than common plants. Our study illustrates the power of linking such distinct biological traditions as community ecology and the neuroethology of bee vision.     

The colour of fossil feathers

Feathers are complex integumentary appendages of birds and some other theropod dinosaurs. They are frequently coloured and function in camouflage and display. Previous investigations have concluded that fossil feathers are preserved as carbonized traces composed of feather-degrading bacteria. Here, an investigation of a colour-banded feather from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil revealed that the dark bands are preserved as elongate, oblate carbonaceous bodies 1-2mum long, whereas the light bands retain only relief traces on the rock matrix. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis showed that the dark bands preserve a substantial amount of carbon, whereas the light bands show no carbon residue. Comparison of these oblate fossil bodies with the structure of black feathers from a living bird indicates that they are the eumelanin-containing melanosomes. We conclude that most fossil feathers are preserved as melanosomes, and that the distribution of these structures in fossil feathers can preserve the colour pattern in the original feather. The discovery of preserved melanosomes opens up the possibility of interpreting the colour of extinct birds and other dinosaurs.     

The machinery of colour vision

Some fundamental principles of colour vision, deduced from perceptual studies, have been understood for a long time. Physiological studies have confirmed the existence of three classes of cone photoreceptors, and of colour-opponent neurons that compare the signals from cones, but modern work has drawn attention to unexpected complexities of early organization: the proportions of cones of different types vary widely among individuals, without great effect on colour vision; the arrangement of different types of cones in the mosaic seems to be random, making it hard to optimize the connections to colour-opponent mechanisms; and new forms of colour-opponent mechanisms have recently been discovered. At a higher level, in the primary visual cortex, recent studies have revealed a simpler organization than had earlier been supposed, and in some respects have made it easier to reconcile physiological and perceptual findings.     

Structural colour and iridescence in plants: the poorly studied relations of pigment colour

Background

Colour is a consequence of the optical properties of an object and the visual system of the animal perceiving it. Colour is produced through chemical and structural means, but structural colour has been relatively poorly studied in plants.

Scope

This Botanical Briefing describes the mechanisms by which structures can produce colour. In plants, as in animals, the most common mechanisms are multilayers and diffraction gratings. The functions of structural colour are then discussed. In animals, these colours act primarily as signals between members of the same species, although they can also play roles in camouflaging animals from their predators. In plants, multilayers are found predominantly in shade-plant leaves, suggesting a role either in photoprotection or in optimizing capture of photosynthetically active light. Diffraction gratings may be a surprisingly common feature of petals, and recent work has shown that they can be used by bees as cues to identify rewarding flowers.

Conclusions

Structural colour may be surprisingly frequent in the plant kingdom, playing important roles alongside pigment colour. Much remains to be discovered about its distribution, development and function.